Annie Plans to Release New Version of Don't Stop

She knows her former label hates her

Swedish pop chirper Annie had Don't Stop, her long-overdue follow-up to Anniemal, all loaded up and ready to go before she broke with her label, Island Records, last November. The single "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" was making the rounds, and the album, in what sure sounded like final form, had leaked to the internet. But then Annie decided to leave the label, and it looked like the album would never hit actual record-store shelves.

But, as Annie told Billboard yesterday, Don't Stop will come out sometime this year, though it won't be on Island and probably won't sound like whatever you've got on your hard drive. "I own the masters, so I can do whatever I want to do," she says. "I might do it myself, on my own label."

The leaked version of the album had 12 tracks, but Annie tells Billboard that she recorded nearly 60 songs for the album and that she might play around with the tracklist before releasing it. That's good news because, if we're being honest, the leaked Don't Stop was no Anniemal, even if the sample of Them's "Gloria" on "Sweet" kind of ruled.

Don't Stop, at least in its original form, featured contributions from Girls Aloud, Richard X, and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos. Who even knows if all those guys will show up on the new-and-probably-improved version. Annie can be so mysterious.